With a proud heritage of serving members of the armed forces and their families, AmeriCU Credit Union has grown from its humble founding at Griffiss Air Force base in 1950 to become a trusted credit union that serves more than 157,000 members. Over the years, AmeriCU has remained committed to delivering meaningful connections that provides its members with the right financial tools to live life, dream big and achieve financial success.
AmeriCU recognizes the importance of connecting with its members to help them achieve their financial goals. As members started to embrace a digital-first lifestyle, AmeriCU identified the need to find ways to provide highly personalized member service online that reflected its strong in-branch experience.
Not all digital service solutions are created equal. AmeriCU knew the importance of offering online support that was easy for members to use and provided enhanced communication alternatives that streamline resolution. Rather than disparate channels, the credit union looked for a single platform for all digital interactions. After evaluating different solutions, AmeriCU decided to move forward with Glia based on its deep financial services expertise and proven solutions for seamless member experiences.
AmeriCU first deployed Glia’s Digital Customer Service (DCS) platform in April 2022, as part of a phased rollout aligned to its joint success plan that included change management steps to ensure adoption by both members and employees. The first phase focused on digital chat, which helped to reduce wait times.
After effectively rolling out the chat feature, AmeriCU looked to further expand digital-first capabilities that drive new efficiencies while maintaining its high member satisfaction rate. Knowing that it was important to AmeriCU to maintain one call center, the Glia customer success team was able to easily offer OnScreen voice options. This allows members to simply speak directly with a representative by pushing a button online. This led the credit union to then explore additional means to leverage Glia’s services.
As AmeriCU worked to further enhance its digital member service, it discovered ways to create value and leverage additional benefits. Building on early success in digitally supporting a new self-service payment option, AmeriCU extended online service to enhance member experiences with mortgages and loan origination.
Metrics around each digital-first project have proven AmeriCU’s success and helped the credit union to learn and continuously improve results. The effectiveness of digital chat, for example, led AmeriCU to add OnScreen voice for a highly personal option that allows a shift of the mix.
This in turn has improved the Average Handle Time (AHT), lowered both the Average Wait Time and abandonment rates, while significantly driving up Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores. To complement its inbound digital service, AmeriCU launched an outbound team for proactive sales, using Glia’s Live Observation tool to understand when members might have questions and need service support.
Self-service has been the central driver in AmeriCU’s digital-first expansion. For example, members often reach out with concerns about their password or logging-into their account. Being able to guide and show them how to independently resolve these issues has been highly effective, leading to a steady increase in self-service usage.
Glia’s dual-cursor CoBrowsing feature allows service representatives and members to virtually work together on the same page, helping the service team to demonstrate solutions and guide members with simple how-to instructions. By showing members how to find the resources they need online, AmeriCU has realized a significant 23% increase in self-service usage since deploying Glia, while retaining a high 66 Net Promoter Score (NPS) and 4.75/5 customer satisfaction (CSAT) score.
To further enhance its self-service options and offer after-hours support 24/7, AmeriCU launched an AI-powered virtual assistant, tailored to member service needs. Named SAM for ‘Serving AmeriCU Members,’ the chatbot is integrated with the Glia platform to seamlessly offer chat assistance when live representatives are not available. SAM can help members troubleshoot login issues, learn about AmeriCU products and start a loan application or plan for retirement. The chatbot can even help schedule appointments.
AmeriCU’s service representatives have been able to strengthen their skills in assisting members. In addition to efficiency gains and savings, the self-service approach allows reps to focus on more strategic interactions and complex tasks, such as helping members with loan or mortgage questions.
The Glia platform has helped AmeriCU retain top service employees in several ways. Feature-rich tools and easy training quickly sets the team up for success. AmeriCU has also been able to assess team member strengths and build upon their passions that are well suited for member service. For example, AmeriCU was able to form its outbound team based on who expressed an interest in expanding member relationships.
Glia has also enabled remote service, allowing representatives to have flexibility in the workplace. In some instances, this has allowed AmeriCU to retain valued employees who’ve moved out of the area. This includes several military family members who have been able to continue working for AmeriCU remotely even as their spouses are redeployed out of state.
AmeriCU’s digital service has remained a popular option for many members, even as social distancing restrictions have been lifted. Giving members the option to still receive customer service via phone continues to be important to AmeriCU, leading to a solution thatprovides callers with the same hands-on assistance it gives to its online members.
Because most members who opt to call in via phone are near or on a digital screen, such as their laptop or smartphone, AmeriCU was able to deploy Glia’s Call Visualizer solution. By entering a five-digit numeric CoBrowsing Code provided by the customer service representative, members can get collaborative on-screen assistance that can accelerate engagements, lower abandonment rates, and drive up member satisfaction. This solution is helping members with issues ranging from how to reset a password to reviewing loan options and understanding which forms to complete.
AmeriCU is steadily seeing more members embrace digital-first options. In one instance, an elderly member grew impatient waiting on the phone for a representative. She decided to try the digital option mentioned in the up-front phone menu message and was able to quickly connect. She was so impressed with the digital experience that she has vowed to use this option moving forward and has been telling all her friends how easy online service is.
AmeriCU’s data-driven, phased strategy has proven highly successful as the number of digital interactions continue to climb. To manage the steady volume gains, the credit union has achieved greater efficiencies by embracing digital-first support. Digital interactions more than tripled over the second half of 2022, yet AmeriCU lowered its Average Handle Time by a third. AmeriCU has experienced steady decreases in Average Wait Time and realized lower abandonment rates too.
Built on these results, AmeriCU continues to seek new ways to create more efficiency, improve the member experience, and retain top talent. The credit union will roll out a video feature, for example, bringing rich visual context to complement chat and OnScreen voice. With the digital foundation in place, AmeriCU is prepared to continuously meet member expectations and improve on its stellar service across the board.
